I want to get Jordan's eyes checked. He does a lot of visual stimming that I just chalked up to being on the spectrum. But now I feel like there may actually be something going on with his eyes. He is squinting a lot, rolling his eyes around (not in a seizure way but in a way like when your eyes hurt), etc. Sometimes he does it while watching tv or after stimming but a lot of times it is when he is just sitting in the car at the table, wherever.

But how the heck do they check eyes of a 3 year old?
Also, anyone have any idea what this could be?

For my daughter the doc dialated her eyes and then held some glass between the two of them and with a light looked through it. She had two visits because of family history but the doc says all looks well and wants to see her yearly.

I don't know what it could be, but for my daughter her eye checks went something like this:

The doctor has something off at the side of the room for the child to focus on (used to be a little toy dog, now it's a computer screen) and while she is focused on that he looks into her eyes. Then he would have me lay her across my lap so he could look into her eyes a different way. The first time we went he dilated her eyes for that part, but after that he's been able to get a good look without dilation.

This is with a ped ophthamologist. We've never really been concerned with her vision and have never tried to actually have her read an eye chart. She's largely non-verbal with strangers so I doubt she'd speak for that anyway. I do know that for young children the chart is things like a little house or a heart or different shapes that the child can identify and name rather than letters and numbers.

It's pretty easy, actually. They have the child look out at something (or dilate the eyes), and then they hold a lens up at a fixed distance from the eye. They shine a light through, and look to see which lens focuses the light best on the back of the eye (retina). Going from lens to lens, they can usually get a pretty good estimation of eyesight and the need for glasses.

My boys are uncooperative and non-verbal, plus cognitively delayed at about 18 months. They get annual eye exams, and other than keeping them still it requires almost no cooperation from them....it's all about using different strengths of lenses until one does the best job of focusing the light beam.

Oh, and rolling the eyes to an extreme angle or squinting the eyes hard CAN be related to autism (it was one of the questions on our eval. for autism...it's a kind of visual stimming). It can also be related to eyesight. So...you're doing the right thing. Best to get him checked out.

The pp described what happened with Andrew too. It is amazing to me that they can tell so much about vision with a child who isn't responding (or in Andrew's case was hysterical ).
The ped. opthamologist did tell me that he could say for sure Andrew's eyes were seeing normally for his age but how his brain was interpreting what he saw due to sensory issues was impossible to tell. Andrew has a ton of visual stims too.

Rachelle, mommy to 8 year old boys!

My Blog-free homeschooling finds and my lesson plans and link to the new User Agreement

It's pretty easy, actually. They have the child look out at something (or dilate the eyes), and then they hold a lens up at a fixed distance from the eye. They shine a light through, and look to see which lens focuses the light best on the back of the eye (retina). Going from lens to lens, they can usually get a pretty good estimation of eyesight and the need for glasses.

My boys are uncooperative and non-verbal, plus cognitively delayed at about 18 months. They get annual eye exams, and other than keeping them still it requires almost no cooperation from them....it's all about using different strengths of lenses until one does the best job of focusing the light beam.

Hope that helps!

Thank you for that explanation! Our doc is partially looking at her optic nerve and strabismus and things like that, but I've never known what he was doing that actually measured her vision in any way. That is really cool to know. For some reason I never end up asking that question ( I do know the reason and it's if we've actually managed to get through the appointment without any screaming then I just want to get out while she's still happy ).

Wanted to add that our eye doc did not dilate our kids eyes. I can't stand the feeling of that AT ALL myself. I wouldn't be comfortable putting my kids through that, so I'm glad they just had a regular eye exam.

Thanks everyone, that was quick! He does the eyes to the corners thing when he stims but this is different. It still could be sensory but he keeps rubbing them too. Who knows all the distorted sensory info may be bothering him but I guess I should find out just in case.
Thanks!

My ds (3) has had 2 eye exams. Both he had his eyes dilated then the dr looked at them (actually, she looked at them before she dilated them too). DS is uncooperative (mostly). The first time (at age 2) was horrible. The last one (at 3) wasn't nearly as bad. He has a family history of a genetic eye disorder and he's got about a 50/50 chance of having it. Until he gets the actual genetic testing done he'll have yearly eye exams with dilation.

Yes! I always refuse dilation. I don't want to put chemicals in dd's eyes, I don't think that can be good for them. Doctors gave me a hard time but she got her glasses. They can do examination without.